The Human Imprint

US exposure to financial crisis is $23.7 trillion

BBC News reports that the total exposure of the US government to the financial crisis could hit $23.7 trillion (£14.3tn). I can't actually visualise this amount of money!

Click on the link to read the report.

IMF may run out of cash in six months

The Telegraph reports that the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said that the Fund needed an urgent cash infusion if it was to continue bailing out troubled economies in the future. The article stated that "Mr Strauss-Kahn also indicated that the world's advanced economies were now tipping from recession into full-blown depression, cementing fears about the scale of the economic slump in rich nations".

He is quoted as saying: "Today, the IMF's resources are enough to face the situation but because we are facing a global crisis, the needs may be much bigger than previously," he said. "We have to intervene in Asia, Africa and Central Europe, Latin America, and maybe elsewhere. I can't promise that in six to eight months from now, we will have enough resources."

Follow the link to read the full article.

Social media and product recalls

There have been twelve further peanut related recalls in the last twenty-four hours identified by the FDA so the list of products affected continues to grow. What I have found interesting as this recall has developed is the use of social media as a communication tool with the general public.

This has included UTube communication from the FDA with Fox News to Lance peanut butter crackers who issued a video to say their products were not part of the recall. The FDA has set up widgets for blogs - I have added to my site (Food Safety Chat) and there have also been groups set up through Facebook - about the incident.

Product recall procedures are developed as part of the due diligence requirements of food businesses. Developers and coordinators will soon have to recognise that social media is a key communication tool in the event of a product recall and determine how they can update their protocols to use the medium effectively.

GDP up or down?

Continuing the theme of financial facts and figures the recently updated "Outputs, prices and jobs" page on The Economist makes sobering reading.  I will continue to follow the trends in 2009.